wtnd
@rcn.com
| [CATV] Trouble with Splitter and Pixelation
Hi, I'm having trouble with my cable signal. I'm in an apartment with two splitters one separating living room and bedroom and then one on the living room line to my cable box and cable modem. The box that shares the splitter with the modem is pixelating badly. I switched splitters and the problem persisted and then moved the cable modem to the bedroom which moved the pixelation to the bedroom cable box. Any ideas on this? or do I just need to call in a tech? Thanks in advance.
N |
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alanisrox69
join:2005-03-29
Bethlehem, PA | So you are saying whereever you move the cable modem to the cable box pixelates?
-Derek-
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CHECK YOUR FSLC TAXES!!! |
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wtnd
@rcn.com | Yes, whichever cable box shares a splitter with the cable modem pixelates. I'm wondering if some sort of booster is needed. |
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alanisrox69
join:2005-03-29
Bethlehem, PA
 ·RCN CABLE
| No, boosters don't work.
My guess is, you have a bum cable modem.
I would toss the RCN supplied modem and get a D-Link DCM-202, it's WAYYYYY better than the crappyness RCN gives.
-Derek-
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CHECK YOUR FSLC TAXES!!! |
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daveinpoway
join:2006-07-03
Poway, CA | Another excellent modem is a Motorola SB51XX model. |
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nycityny
join:2005-08-09
New York, NY | reply to wtnd
wtnd - Is this a problem that just popped up after having everything work well for awhile? Or are you a new customer experiencing this issue upon set-up? |
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dehmmy
join:2004-11-20
Bethesda, MD
| reply to wtnd
said by wtnd :
Hi, I'm having trouble with my cable signal. I'm in an apartment with two splitters one separating living room and bedroom and then one on the living room line to my cable box and cable modem. The box that shares the splitter with the modem is pixelating badly. I switched splitters and the problem persisted and then moved the cable modem to the bedroom which moved the pixelation to the bedroom cable box. Any ideas on this? or do I just need to call in a tech? Thanks in advance.
N
1) BAD! You want the cable modem as close to the incoming coax as possible. Then I would run Ethernet CAT-5 cable to your computer or have it hooked up to WiFi. I've had many problems with linksys in terms of the way it handles packets.
2) 2 splitters isn't very good. Did you purchase these splitters or did RCN provide them?
3) Do you mean artifacts or is it actually causing the screen to be pixillated cause there is a difference.
I would get 1 unbalanced splitter from RCN and plug the cable modem into the -3.5 dB jack.
It sounds like you have 2 TVs and you are splitting it at one TV to hook the cable modem up. That will give you horrible signals.
So this is what it would look like...
coax in >--[3-way unbalanced splitter]--> [1 to each room and cable modem in the -3.5dB slot]
in other words, when the coax or jack that you hook up to when it enters your apt., have a cable hook into a 3-way unbalanced splitter in which I mean there will be one line in as the input, and three jacks to hook up cables to. two of them will be reduced lower so there's more loss on the 2 for the TV's and the 3rd will have less loss.
This is one I have »www.extreme-broadband.com/bds103h.asp
So you'd hook the cable modem to the far left one and the other two would be fore the TVs to avoid multiple splitters.
cheers,
dehm |
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dehmmy
join:2004-11-20
Bethesda, MD
| reply to daveinpoway
said by daveinpoway  :Another excellent modem is a Motorola SB51XX model. I have both SB4200 and SB5101 and the 4200 seems to handle better..
maybe I'm crazy..
dehm |
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daveinpoway
join:2006-07-03
Poway, CA | The 4200 seems to handle what better? |
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wtnd
@rcn.com
| reply to wtnd
To answer NycityNy's question this has been going on for about a month after years of no problem. It began with only affecting the digital channels but after RCN switched everything to digital here in Chicago it now causes all channels to sort of pop in and out. To answer dehmmy's question the splitters were put in place by RCN. Actually there were 3 splitters at first but with the switch to all digital I lost the second tuner on my TiVo dual tuner so I removed on of the splits. Thanks to everyone for their suggestions. I will try to switch to a 3-way splitter and if that doesn't help will swap out cable modems.
wtnd |
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alanisrox69
join:2005-03-29
Bethlehem, PA
·RCN CABLE
| It probably makes more sense to buy yourself a D-Link DCM-202 modem as it will give you a $3 credit on your bill every month...
You'll make what you spent back on the modem in less than a year via the $3 monthly credit.
-Derek-
--
CHECK YOUR FSLC TAXES!!! |
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ike
join:2000-10-23
Whitehall, PA
·RCN CABLE
| reply to dehmmy
said by dehmmy :coax in >--[3-way unbalanced splitter]--> [1 to each room and cable modem in the -3.5dB slot] I did something similar a while after we had an addition put on the house and had issues with the new drops:
Before:
RCN
|
4x-splitter
(-7dB)
| | | |
| CM (2 HD DVRs)
|
4x-splitter
(-7dB)
| | | |
| (1 QAM, 2 SDTVs)
|
4x-splitter
(-7dB)
| | | |
(2 SDTVs, 2 unused drops)
After:
RCN
|
Surge
Protector
|
2x-splitter
(-3.5dB)
| |
| |
CM Amp
(+15db)
|
16x-splitter
(-15dB)
[unused ports on the splitter, as well as
unused drops capped with 75 ohm terminators]
TVs off that last splitter were getting snowy (especially in the MBR where we split again for a ReplayTV...). And one of the TVs with a QAM tuner had trouble with a few top-end channels.
After I redid things, I did noticed at first I had some pixelation with the HD-DVR boxes, but then I realized I hadn't put in the filters RCN had on the digital lines before I changed it up (I'll have to look at what they are when I get home).
After the new configuration, everything is clear all around. CM has better signal strengths than it did before and no snow anywhere... |
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dehmmy
join:2004-11-20
Bethesda, MD
| reply to daveinpoway
said by daveinpoway :The 4200 seems to handle what better? The noise on the signal. The SB5101 hangs when loading webpages big time even though it shows the signals are better. Very strange..
jay |
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